For several years after I joined the Church I paid little attention to the subject of communion wine. But at last an article appeared in a New-Church paper, in which the writer claimed that fermented wine was a good and useful article to be used as a beverage, and he tried to justify its use by the teachings of the Church. Such views were so contrary to what I regarded as true, that I immediately commenced a more careful and critical examination of the writings of Swedenborg, to ascertain what is taught therein as to wine. I soon found that he distinctly recognized two kinds of wine, as does the Bible: one kind unfermented, a good and nourishing fluid to which he always gives a good signification when its use is not abused; and the other kind, known by its effects on man when he drinks it to be fermented, to which he has never given a good signification when it is clear from the context that reference is had to fermented wine. And I will here say that my opponents in the Church have done precisely what the advocates of slavery, intoxicating drinks, and skeptics have done in their appeals to the Bible to sustain their views. They find here and there a comparison and passage which, by placing their own construction upon them, they think will justify their views, while they totally ignore a large number of passages which most clearly and positively teach a totally different doctrine; and they ignore scientific facts, the well known effects of drinking fermented wine, and the testimony of ancient writers whenever such testimony does not accord with their own views. Thus they uphold the use of the drunkard's cup as a beverage and even as a sacramental wine; and within my knowledge more than one poor man in our Church who was struggling to reform his life has been led back by partaking of it to drunkenness. A distinguished clergyman said in a letter to the writer:-- "I can never forget the experience already related to you when Mr. ----, my wife's brother-in-law, a gentleman of classical education, had become a sober man through my efforts and received the heavenly doctrines ... Then came the Lord's Supper and we had fermented California wine. I handed him the cup, he drank, and after church he fled to some place where wine could be had, came home late in the evening drunk, and continued drinking for three months, until he died one evening after being brought home beastly drunk. Unfermented wine is no seducer, and had Mr. ---- been given such in the Sacrament, he might be living, a sober man, to-day. Your books on the 'Wine Question' deserve, therefore, all that you have done and expended under the Lord's guidance for their publication and circulation, and God only knows how much good they will yet have to do." Another clergyman wrote:--